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Post-release downloadable content has become so commonplace in games that today’s digital stores need to support it. Now that the Oculus Go is in stores, Oculus has announced that it’s implementing standalone DLC in its Mobile Store for the Go and Samsung Gear VR, with Rift support “coming soon.”

DLC’s major benefit for Go and Rift developers will be the ability to start charging for additional characters, levels, and stories, an addition that comes with positives and negatives. On the plus side, Oculus developers will be able to continue to expand existing titles with new content with microtransaction-style monetization, rather than requiring the purchase of a “sequel.” But paid DLC could also reduce the number of free content-adding updates gamers have come to expect, depending on how developers implement it.

Oculus also suggests that the change can keep initial game download sizes down. Until now, Oculus developers had to add new content to the original game as free patches, expanding their storage requirements. DLC support enables either paid or free additions to take place separately — a feature that could be particularly useful with space-constrained standalone Go headsets.

The Oculus developer blog notes that the feature is available now “in beta form” for the Mobile Store and recommends privately testing downloads before delivering them to the general public.

Go courtside for this season’s most incredible MVP moments in NextVR’s latest partnership with the NBA. Since its initial transition into VR content back in 2012, NextVR has become one of, if not the leading provider of live VR event broadcasts. The company has provided immersive live streaming services for multiple high-profile clients, from the

Whether you want to immerse yourself in one of the most topical TV shows out right now from HBO, rack up headshots with your bow and arrow skills, or venture into the neon-soaked nostalgia trip of a 90s era shooter, there’s something for just about everyone this week.

If you missed last week’s releases they’re here. And don’t forget that UploadVR has a Steam community group, complete with a curated list of recommendations so that you don’t have to waste any money finding out what’s good in the world of VR. We also have a top list of the absolute best Oculus Rift and HTC Vive games at the corresponding links.

Compound, from Bevan McKechnie

Price: $19.99 (Rift, Vive, Windows VR)

What if you could teleport yourself inside the monitor screen of a 90s era FPS in the vein of Wolfenstein and classic DOOM? That’s exactly what Compound does, complete with pixelated graphics and everything. But don’t let the simplistic art style fool you: this is actually one of VR’s smartest shooters to date.

Read our full thoughts.

Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel, from HBO

Price: Free (Rift and Vive)

If I could use VR to venture into the world of some of my favorite TV shows, I’d be a very happy man. Luckily, Silicon Valley is one of those shows for me and this VR experience lets you visit the iconic hacker hostel that’s prominently featured in Seasons 1-4 of the hit HBO dramedy and features hundreds of things to interact with.

More info here.

Fadeholm, from Enoch and Horbin

Price: $19.99 (Vive)

If the successes of Vanishing Realms and Skyrim VR have taught me anything, it’s that VR needs more fantasy-themed dungeon crawling experiences. Luckily, Fadeholm is a brand new entry in the budding genre. All of the dungeons are procedurally generated so you won’t see the same layout twice and you need to manage resources like your hunger, health, and endurance to survive. We’re eager to see how this one evolves through Early Access.

Sacralith: The Archer’s Tale, from Odd Meter

Price: $19.99 (Currently Discounted, Vive and Rift)

Shooting a bow and arrow is still one of my favorite things to do in VR, so when a game comes along that focuses on that specifically, while wrapping it up with a strong narrative and dense world to explore, you’ve got my attention. This one is aiming to be more than just a wave shooter.

Five new titles, generous prizes, and a more flexible tournament system could take VR eSports to new heights. Whether it’s the conventional headset technology used in Ready Player One, or the futuristic, cerebral connection featured in Sword Art Online, it seems as though the end goal for competitive esports has always been VR. So while

DigiLens of Sunnyvale, California announced today that it has raised $25 million from Continental, a German technology company interested in the automotive application of the startup’s holographic display technology.

The deal will give Continental an 18 percent stake in DigiLens. The two companies are now jointly developing “a waveguide head-up display” (HUD) for cars. The waveguide technology also has potential for aviation and motorcycle helmets, the companies said in a press release.

The partners claim the augmented reality display increases the typical field of view for a driver while reducing the size of components needed.

“By reducing the size of head-up displays, this waveguide technology truly holds the potential to revolutionize the market,” said Thorsten-Alexander Kern, head of HUD product development at Continental and a member of the DigiLens board of directors, in a statement. “Seeing the first promising results, we are happy that we could increase our investment in DigiLens and further work together in order to bring this exciting technology on the road.”

Skyworld, despite its flaws, at least does something a bit different in the VR gaming space. Instead of focusing on blood, gore, and guns (like Vertigo’s other game, Arizona Sunshine, and the rest of the VR market) Skyworld takes a decidedly whimsical approach in delivering an approachable RTS-lite experience.

For fans of the genre that haven’t had a chance to check it out yet or want something to shake up their Brass Tactics sessions, you can play Skyworld totally for free this weekend on both Steam and the Oculus Home store. That means Rift, Vive, and Windows VR all get free access.

The free period is already active right now and lasts until Sunday, May 20th, at 1PM PT. If you like it enough, you can purchase it for 50% off during this period to retain access. That sale ends on May 21st.

Additionally, the newly released Lost Worlds DLC (shown above in the trailer) is included as well, which adds two new worlds to the game to further expand its content.

For more on Skyworld, read our full review. Let us know what you think of this news down in the comments below!

While we patiently wait for official (and free) DLC, the alpha version of Beat Saber’s level editor will have to do for now. Thankfully, it’s not too difficult to download and import tracks that users have created for the time being, even if it’s not officially supported.

We livestreamed a bunch of custom-made songs for an hour yesterday, so you can check that video out down below (I specifically recommend Take On Me, which you can see me complete on Expert after three tries at 53:48) –

Getting Beat Saber to work with custom songs is simple:

Download this plugin from GitHub.
Unzip the contents directly into your Beat Saber folder. If you’re playing on Steam then it’s probably under \steamapps\common\Beat Saber\ in your director, or if you’re on Oculus Home it’s likely under \Oculus Apps\Software\hyperbolic-magnetism-beat-saber\.
Drag the Saber.exe file ontop of the IPA.exe file and drop it. This will initialize the plugin. Leave everything else the way it is.

If you get stuck, there is a handy-dandy ReadMe file in the .zip you’re supposed to download from step one, so just check that.

Now to actually install new tracks, you need to visit Beat Saver, which is a community-ran website with tons of songs ready to download. Be warned that many of these tracks don’t fit the game well or have really poor mapping. Sorting them by most played or most downloaded helps filter out the stinkers.

Once you download a song just drag and drop its entire folder into the CustomSongs folder that should be in your Beat Saber directory now. From there, you should be good to go!

What are some of your favorite custom tracks so far? Let us know down in the comments below!

I’m all for campy stuff. When done correctly, cheesy humor that doesn’t take itself too seriously can bring out plenty of smiles in even the most jaded of gamers. While it’s hard to tell for sure based on a single trailer and email summary, it certainly sounds and looks like Blood, Bugs, and Bullets, or B3 for short, from 4 | Lab (the same team that brought us the decidedly silly Drunk or Dead) could fit the bill.

If the name didn’t give it away already, B3 is a shooter with lots of blood, bugs, and bullets. From what we’ve seen I’m getting a very strong Starship Troopers meets Earth Defense Force vibe, which is great, because too many VR games are aiming for ultra-realism these days.

In B3 you’ll gun down countless giant bugs and aliens in your quest to rid the world of the disgusting scum. The game is also designed to be a cooperative affair so you don’t have to go it alone when facing down the swarms.

B3 is currently in a Closed Alpha state with two playable story missions that vary between attacking and defending. It’s leaning hard into the lighthearted retro-futuristic vibe, which certainly helps play up the Starship Trooper comparisons.

Currently it’s slated for a Fall 2019 full release, which hopefully means Early Access or a Beta of some kind before then later this year or early next year. It’ll have support for Rift, Vive, and Windows VR headsets.

What do you think based on what you’ve heard so far? Let us know down in the comments below!

Now that users can mod in their own custom songs for Beat Saber (lots of them are uploaded to Beat Saver for easy access) the game’s already starting to feel more robust. When it launched with just 10 tracks it was still an easy recommendation, but now it’s only growing to become one of VR’s most exciting, addictive, and varied music games.

Here’s our full Early Access review for more about why we love it.

We’ll be livestreaming Beat Saber on PC using Rift with Touch starting very soon (which means we’ll start at approximately 3:20PM PT) and aim to last for about an hour or so. We’re going to use Restream to hit both YouTube and Twitch at the same time!

You can see our archived streams all in this one handy Livestream playlist over on the official UploadVR YouTube channel (which you should totally subscribe to by the way). We’re also rebooting our Twitch channel too.

Let us know which games you want us to livestream next and if you want to see more Beat Saber in the future. Comment with any feedback down below!

Last year Oculus, Intel, and ESL teamed up to launch the VR Challenge League, the world’s first largescale VR esports event. Now, starting tomorrow, it’s coming back as VR League: Season 2 from Oculus once again in partnership with global esports network, ESL.

Previously the league only tracked competition in The Unspoken and Echo Arena, but now it’s expanding to include even more games. Starting tomorrow, May 18th, The Unspoken will be the focus of the league, followed by Sprint Vector in June starting on June 4th. Two more titles will be unveiled for prized play in July and August, plus even more games after that.

Echo Arena will be back on the board starting May 20th for four weeks of competition. In the future, Echo Combat will also be included, the next upcoming iteration of the Echo sports subgenre established by developers Ready at Dawn.

Finally, the official VR League will also help support the VR Master League and the community surrounding military simulation shooter, Onward, via the Onward Invitational from June 16th – 17th. This Invitational will also contribute proceeds to Stack Up, a charity supporting US and Allied veterans through video games.

Across all of the competitions VR League: Season 2 features a prize pool of over $220K USD and up to seven total games across five months of competition. The grand finale will be held at Oculus Connect 5 later this year.

To learn more and sign up to participate, you can head over to the official VR League website. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

SVVR’s first project under their ambitious MULTIVERSE initiative links VR with the real world via mixed reality live events. Since 2013, independent global VR community SVVR has worked tirelessly to develop a thriving global community for VR enthusiasts, developers, professionals, and entrepreneur looking to sink their teeth into immersive technology. The company recently crossed their

Camera maker RED is planning to bring its holographic phone to Verizon and AT&T later this year.

The Hydrogen One is said to have a display that shows depth without any glasses required, and a PDF on the RED website outlines its planned feature set for around $1,300. That same sheet lists a Q1 planned shipping window, so it is already delayed.

Facebook recently announced a partnership with the camera maker to design a high-end system capable of capturing volumetric footage. It remains unclear, however, how this phone might fit into the workflows of people using the company’s cameras. RED is working on a new kind of format it calls “4-View” the phone is capable of playing, and the Hydrogen One is designed to be modular and expandable so you just connect new components to change its functionality.

RED has a strong track record of delivering on its promises, so we are anxious to see what this gadget is capable of when it finally arrives.

VR could be the future of employee training, and businesses are beginning to take notice. It’s no secret that an increasing number of businesses have begun turning to virtual and augmented reality for their employee training needs. One of the primary reasons companies have doubled-down on their use of this immersive technology is its unarguable cost-effectiveness.

When people say VR is still in the PlayStation-era, they usually mean it figuratively; developers are still working out the language of this new medium one game at a time. Bevan McKechnie has taken that analogy quite literally, though, and in the process discovered one of VR’s most concise shooters.

Compound’s trick is to breathe new life into the basics. It recaptures the revelatory 3D thrills of sneaking around Castle Wolfenstein, hugging a pixelated wall and quickly poking around a corner for a few pot shots at unsuspecting enemies, opening a door and leaping in fright at the sight of an armed goon opening fire, or the relief that comes with discovering a cache of health. But there’s renewed enthusiasm in unearthing the core of the first-person shooter that takes Compound far further than a faithful love letter.

Its simplicity is key. In this roguelike adventure, you enter the Compound and storm its many levels of randomized enemies, clearing out each floor before progressing to the next. Each time you die you’re sent back to the start with a new layout to tackle. There’s just four weapons to pick up right now, and only two can be taken with you at a time, but McKechnie has wisely strayed away from the tiresome dual-wielding lunacy that’s informed far too many VR shooters over the past few years in favor of reigning it back to one gun at a time.

Bombastic wave-shooting is replaced with decidedly more methodical combat, then, and it feels like exactly what VR needs. Compound doesn’t want you to aimlessly wave your hands out in front and exercise your trigger finger. It instead sets a slower pace; every bullet fired by an enemy is a large glowing orb that travels at a fraction of the speed of real lead. Light on realism, yes, but incoming attacks carry more threat to them than anything thrown at you in Robo Recall. The game gives you space to breathe and, more importantly, process a firefight rather than rush to overwhelm your senses in an attempt to disguise shallow design.

Weapons take a similar approach. Each gun has its own reloading system: while the standard laser pistol has a cooldown meter, the shotgun, machine gun and railgun all require you to manually load in a clip and then press a button to ready your next round. It helps set a deliberate pace to the shootouts, and at times forces you to switch between weapons as you push your back against the wall in hopes that enemies run out before your ammo does. In these moments, Compound summons much more of that blockbuster adrenaline than many of its contemporaries can muster.

Health plays a large part in that, too. Instead of a rebounding meter, Compound gives you hit points that can be replenished by eating burgers, which can be checked on a wrist-mounted UI. Protecting yourself and the past 10 minutes of progress is always on your mind and makes your moves more considered. Rushing in to blast baddies

Two of the year’s biggest films (Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War) have come and gone from their premiere dates raking in hundreds of millions of dollars each. Following the relative flop that was DC’s Justice League, Marvel appears to be on top of the cinematic super hero world right now. But despite it all, you’d never know a big, exclusive, Marvel VR game is coming to the Oculus Rift sometime this year (supposedly) unless you just happened to follow the industry more closely than most.

After being announced almost a full year ago with only a handful of character announcements and a brief Comic Con appearance since, we’d started to worry about the likelihood that Marvel Powers United VR would ever see the light of day. It’s been months of silence after all.

Marvel Powers United VR is in development by Sanzaru Games, the same team behind other Rift titles like VR Sports Challenge and Ripcoil, in collaboration with Marvel and Oculus Studios. At a recent preview event for upcoming Rift games like Defector we got the chance to ask about Marvel’s status. Specifically, is it still happening?

According to Mike Doran, Oculus Studios Executive Producer on Marvel Powers United VR, there is no reason to worry:

“Everyone’s hard at work on MARVEL Powers United VR and we’re looking forward to its release later this year.”

Unfortunately that’s all they’ve got to say about that. No firm date, no milestones to mention, and no new characters. It feels odd that two of Marvel’s most successful movies to date would release without even a whiff of marketing for Powers United VR attached, but that’s the world we live in.

Are you still looking forward to Marvel Powers United VR? Fingers crossed we get to see more at E3 next month. Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below!